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A period between about 1550 and 1860 during which the climate of the middle latitudes became generally harsher and there was a world-wide expansion of glaciers. The effects have been recorded in the Alps, Norway, and Iceland, where farm land and buildings were destroyed, and the climatic cooling was global. There were times of especial severity during this period, e.g. the early 1600s when glaciers were particularly active in the Chamonix valley, in the French Alps.